58 practice questions for Domain 4 of the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) exam, which makes up 12% of its scored content. Your answers count towards one score and one timer for the whole exam.
Domain 4: Billing, Pricing, and Support
242. A company runs a steady, predictable production workload on EC2 for at least the next three years and wants the largest possible discount versus On-Demand pricing. Which purchasing option should it evaluate first?
Answer and explanation
Answer: A. Steady, predictable, long-running usage is exactly the profile that commitment-based pricing rewards; a one- or three-year Savings Plan or Standard Reserved Instance yields the deepest discounts against On-Demand. Spot offers the largest raw discount but instances can be reclaimed with two minutes' notice, which is unsuitable for steady production unless the workload is interruption-tolerant. On-Demand is the baseline the company is trying to beat. Dedicated Hosts address licensing and compliance isolation needs and cost more, not less.
243. Which pricing model charges for compute capacity by the second with no long-term commitment and no upfront payment?
Answer and explanation
Answer: A. On-Demand bills for capacity as it is consumed, with no commitment, which is why it is the baseline against which discounts are measured. Standard Reserved Instances and three-year Savings Plans both require a term commitment in exchange for a lower rate. Dedicated Host reservations likewise commit to a term.
244. Which statement about the AWS Free Tier is correct?
Answer and explanation
Answer: C. The Free Tier comprises three distinct categories: always free, twelve months free for new accounts, and time-limited trials, and coverage varies by service. It does not cover every service, is not unlimited, and is not restricted to EC2.
245. Which purchasing option offers the largest discount but allows AWS to reclaim the capacity with short notice?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. Spot Instances use spare capacity at the deepest discount and can be reclaimed when AWS needs the capacity back. Reserved Instances discount in exchange for a commitment without reclamation. On-Demand is the undiscounted baseline. Dedicated Hosts carry a premium for hardware isolation.
246. Which statement about AWS data transfer charges is correct?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B. Inbound transfer from the internet is generally free and outbound transfer is charged, which is why egress dominates many bills. The rates are not symmetric. Traffic within one Availability Zone using private addresses is generally free. Inter-Region transfer is charged.
247. Which purchasing option requires a commitment to a consistent amount of compute usage measured in dollars per hour?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. Savings Plans commit to a dollar-per-hour spend level across compute usage in exchange for a discount. Spot uses spare capacity with no commitment. On-Demand has no commitment. A Capacity Reservation reserves capacity in an Availability Zone without a spend commitment.
248. Which tool lets a company visualize and analyse its AWS spending over time and identify the services driving cost?
Answer and explanation
Answer: A. Cost Explorer charts historical usage and spend and supports grouping and filtering to locate the drivers. The Pricing Calculator estimates the cost of a proposed architecture before it is built. Artifact distributes compliance reports. Trusted Advisor flags specific savings opportunities but does not provide the general spend analysis described.
249. Which service alerts a team when spending is forecast to exceed a defined threshold?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. AWS Budgets sets cost, usage, and reservation thresholds and sends notifications on actual or forecast breach. The Cost and Usage Report delivers detailed billing data for analysis but raises no alerts itself. CloudWatch Logs stores log data. Config evaluates resource configuration compliance rather than spending.
250. What is a benefit of consolidated billing under AWS Organizations?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B. Consolidated billing aggregates usage across the organization, so tiered pricing and shared commitment discounts apply to the combined total. Separate billing is what consolidated billing replaces. Cost allocation tags remain the mechanism for attributing spend to teams. No blanket percentage discount is applied simply by joining an organization.
251. Which tool estimates the cost of a proposed AWS architecture before any resources are created?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. The Pricing Calculator models the cost of a planned configuration in advance. Cost Explorer analyses historical spend. Budgets alerts on thresholds against actual or forecast spend. The Cost and Usage Report delivers detailed billing data for consumption that has already occurred.
252. Which mechanism allows spend to be attributed to individual teams or projects across an account?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. Cost allocation tags applied to resources and activated for billing let costs be grouped by team or project in Cost Explorer and the billing reports. Regions are geographic rather than organizational. IAM users identify people rather than attributing resource cost. Dashboards visualize metrics, not spend.
253. A company wants to be alerted when its monthly AWS charges exceed a defined amount. What is the simplest way to configure this?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B. A cost budget with a notification threshold sends an alert when actual or forecast spend crosses the defined amount. A CPU alarm monitors utilization rather than cost. A Config rule evaluates configuration compliance. Trusted Advisor identifies savings opportunities without alerting on a spend threshold.
254. Which AWS Support plan is the minimum that includes 24x7 access to Cloud Support Engineers by phone, chat, and email?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B. Business Support is the entry level offering round-the-clock access to Cloud Support Engineers across phone, chat, and email. Developer Support provides business-hours access by email only. Basic Support includes documentation, forums, and account and billing support but no technical case support. Enterprise On-Ramp sits above Business, so it is not the minimum.
255. Which AWS Support plan includes a designated Technical Account Manager?
Answer and explanation
Answer: A. Enterprise Support includes a designated Technical Account Manager alongside the fastest response times and additional proactive services. Business Support provides 24x7 technical support without a designated TAM. Developer Support offers business-hours email support. Basic Support includes documentation and account support only.
256. Which AWS Support plan provides 24x7 access to engineers by phone, chat, and email without a designated Technical Account Manager?
Answer and explanation
Answer: A. Business Support provides 24x7 technical support through several channels but no designated Technical Account Manager. Enterprise Support adds that designation. Developer Support offers business-hours email access. Basic Support includes documentation and account support only.
257. Which resource allows AWS customers to ask technical questions and receive answers from the AWS community and AWS staff?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. AWS re:Post is the community question and answer service. Artifact distributes compliance documents. The Pricing Calculator estimates cost. The Well-Architected Tool reviews a workload against the framework.
258. Which offering provides AWS consultants who work with a customer to achieve a specific outcome?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B. Professional Services is the AWS consulting organisation engaged for specific outcomes. AWS Support responds to technical cases. Marketplace distributes third-party software. Activate provides credits and resources to startups.
259. Which benefit does membership of the AWS Partner Network provide to an organization?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B. The Partner Network provides training, certification, events, and go-to-market resources. It does not grant a blanket service discount, exempt a partner from support fees, or confer a support tier automatically.
260. Which resource provides prescriptive guidance and patterns published by AWS for common migration and modernization tasks?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B. AWS Prescriptive Guidance publishes patterns, strategies, and guides for common tasks. The Knowledge Center answers frequently asked support questions. The Security Blog publishes security articles. The Health Dashboard reports service events.
261. Which team should be contacted to report suspected abuse of AWS resources?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B. The AWS Trust and Safety team handles reports of abuse originating from AWS resources. Professional Services delivers consulting engagements. The Partner Network supports partner organisations. Managed Services operates infrastructure on a customer's behalf.
262. Which capability does AWS Marketplace provide to a customer?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. Marketplace is the catalog for third-party software with consolidated billing through the AWS account. Technical cases are raised through AWS Support. Cost estimation is the Pricing Calculator. Service health is the AWS Health Dashboard.
263. Which pricing model charges for compute capacity by the hour or second with no long-term commitment?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B. On-Demand charges per hour or second with no commitment. Reserved Instances and Savings Plans require a term commitment. Spot uses spare capacity at a discount with interruption risk.
264. Which pricing consideration applies to AWS Lambda?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. Lambda charges per request and per unit of compute duration. There is no fixed monthly fee, per-function charge, or package-size charge.
265. What does the AWS Free Tier provide?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. The Free Tier offers defined free usage, with some offers limited to twelve months and others always free. It is neither unlimited, a general discount, nor a support entitlement.
266. Which tool visualizes and analyses AWS spending over time?
Answer and explanation
Answer: A. Cost Explorer visualizes historical and forecast spend. The Pricing Calculator estimates future cost before deployment. Budgets alert on thresholds. The Cost and Usage Report is the detailed data source.
267. Which tool estimates the cost of a planned AWS architecture before it is deployed?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. The Pricing Calculator estimates cost for a planned architecture. Cost Explorer analyses actual spend. Budgets alert on thresholds. Billing Conductor supports customized billing views.
268. What is a benefit of consolidated billing in AWS Organizations?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B. Consolidated billing aggregates usage so the organization may reach volume discount tiers. Discounts are not per account. Individual account costs remain visible. IAM users are not shared across accounts.
269. Which practice enables cost to be attributed to a specific team or project?
Answer and explanation
Answer: A. Activated cost allocation tags attribute spend. Regions, instance types, and VPCs do not provide billing attribution by themselves.
270. Which AWS Support plan provides access to a full set of Trusted Advisor checks?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. The full set of Trusted Advisor checks is available from Business Support upward. Basic and Developer Support include a limited set. Trusted Advisor is available to all customers in some form.
271. Which resource provides published AWS guidance on architectural best practices?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. Whitepapers and the Well-Architected Framework publish architectural guidance. The Pricing Calculator estimates cost. Artifact distributes compliance documents. The Health Dashboard reports service events.
272. Which tool reviews a workload against AWS best practices and produces an improvement plan?
Answer and explanation
Answer: C. The Well-Architected Tool reviews a workload against the framework and produces an improvement plan. Trusted Advisor runs account-level checks. Config evaluates resource configuration. Audit Manager collects compliance evidence.
273. Where can a customer see events affecting the AWS services their own account uses?
Answer and explanation
Answer: A. The AWS Health Dashboard reports events specific to the customer's account. The public page reports general service status. Trusted Advisor provides best-practice checks. CloudWatch monitors customer resources.
274. Which purchasing option provides a discount in exchange for committing to a specific instance family in a Region?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B. EC2 Instance Savings Plans and Standard Reserved Instances commit to a family in a Region. Compute Savings Plans are broader, and Spot and On-Demand carry no commitment.
275. Which factor affects the cost of data stored in Amazon S3?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B. Storage class, volume, and requests drive S3 cost. Bucket count, Region count, and user count do not.
276. What is charged when data is transferred between Availability Zones in the same Region?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B. Cross-zone transfer is charged per gigabyte in both directions. It is not free, not one-directional, and priced differently from internet egress.
277. Which pricing characteristic applies to AWS Fargate?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B. Fargate charges for requested vCPU and memory for the task's duration. There is no cluster fee, per-definition charge, or image size charge.
278. Which purchasing option reserves capacity in a specific Availability Zone without a pricing commitment?
Answer and explanation
Answer: C. A Capacity Reservation reserves capacity without a pricing commitment. Reserved Instances and Savings Plans commit to spend, and Spot uses spare capacity.
279. Which characteristic distinguishes a Dedicated Host from a Dedicated Instance?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. Dedicated Hosts expose the physical server's sockets and cores, which some licences require. They are not cheaper, Dedicated Instances provide less control, and the options differ.
280. Which tool detects unusual spending patterns without a preset threshold?
Answer and explanation
Answer: A. Cost Anomaly Detection learns normal patterns and alerts on deviation. Budgets require thresholds, Cost Explorer analyses spend, and the Pricing Calculator estimates.
281. Which capability does AWS Billing Conductor provide?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. Billing Conductor produces customized billing views for internal chargeback. Anomaly detection, estimation, and recommendations are other services.
282. What determines which AWS Support plan an organization should choose?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. Required response time and proactive guidance determine the appropriate plan. Account count, Regions, and service count do not.
283. Which AWS Support plan is included for every AWS account at no additional charge?
Answer and explanation
Answer: C. Basic Support is included for all accounts. The other plans are paid subscriptions.
284. Which resource provides answers to frequently asked AWS support questions?
Answer and explanation
Answer: C. The Knowledge Center answers common support questions. Artifact distributes compliance documents, the calculator estimates cost, and Trusted Advisor runs checks.
285. Which offering provides AWS-certified partners who can implement solutions on a customer's behalf?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B. The Partner Network comprises certified consulting and technology partners. Support handles cases, Marketplace distributes software, and Activate supports startups.
286. Which resource publishes AWS security guidance and announcements?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. The Security Blog publishes security guidance and announcements. Artifact distributes reports, the Health Dashboard reports service events, and Trusted Advisor runs checks.
287. Which AWS Support feature provides guidance on architectural best practices for a specific workload?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. Enterprise Support includes a Technical Account Manager and access to Well-Architected reviews. Basic Support, the calculator, and Marketplace do not provide architectural guidance.
288. Which resource allows a customer to download AWS agreements such as the Business Associate Addendum?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. Artifact distributes AWS agreements and compliance reports. Audit Manager collects customer evidence, Config records configuration, and the Knowledge Center answers questions.
289. What is the purpose of an AWS Technical Account Manager?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. A Technical Account Manager provides proactive guidance and advocacy. They do not operate resources, approve designs, or negotiate pricing.
290. Which programme provides credits and resources to early-stage startups?
Answer and explanation
Answer: A. Activate provides credits and resources to startups. The Partner Network supports partners, Marketplace distributes software, and Professional Services delivers consulting.
291. Which resource provides architectural guidance published by AWS for building on the platform?
Answer and explanation
Answer: C. The Well-Architected Framework and whitepapers publish architectural guidance. Trusted Advisor and Config evaluate an environment, and the calculator estimates cost.
292. Which support channel is appropriate for reporting a suspected security issue in an AWS service?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B. AWS publishes a security contact process for reporting issues. Marketplace, the calculator, and Artifact serve other purposes.
293. Which service provides recommendations across cost, performance, security, fault tolerance, and service limits?
Answer and explanation
Answer: A. Trusted Advisor covers those five categories. Config evaluates configuration rules, Audit Manager collects audit evidence, and Inspector assesses vulnerabilities.
294. Which resource allows customers to ask questions and receive answers from the AWS community?
Answer and explanation
Answer: A. re:Post is the community question and answer service. The Health Dashboard reports events, Artifact distributes documents, and the Support Center raises cases.
295. What does AWS Managed Services provide?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B. AWS Managed Services operates infrastructure on the customer's behalf. Professional Services delivers consulting, Marketplace distributes software, and Artifact distributes reports.
296. Which AWS offering delivers consulting engagements to help design and build a solution?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B. Professional Services delivers consulting engagements. Managed Services operates infrastructure, Support handles cases, and Marketplace distributes software.
297. Which resource helps a customer understand how AWS services map to a compliance framework's requirements?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. AWS publishes compliance documentation and control mappings through Artifact and its compliance pages. The calculator estimates cost, CloudWatch monitors, and Cost Explorer analyses spend.
298. Which AWS documentation resource describes how to use a specific service's features?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D. Service documentation describes features and usage. Artifact distributes compliance reports, the calculator estimates cost, and re:Post is a community forum.
299. Which resource should a customer consult first for a question about how a specific AWS service works?
Answer and explanation
Answer: C. Service documentation answers how a service works. The Support Center raises cases, Marketplace distributes software, and the calculator estimates cost.